The Adventures of Tapioca
by Aokidanza
Summary: Various stories, laughable and lovable, all centered around Enoshima's favorite duck - Tapioca!
1. Sidetracked

Every day, they sat in this place.

"Thanks again, Misaki!"

"No problem! Come again!"

Every. Single. Day.

Bells jingled as the fisherman left the little fishing shop, exchanging smiles and waves with the cheery shopkeeper girl. _Hemingway_, the shop was named - the place where the alien boy and his friends often visited and mapped out their plans to catch a mysterious "big fish" in the oceans of Enoshima. Their mission was to find out the alien's true plan and stop it, but lately, well, _someone_ had been getting sidetracked.

"Are those the new Twin Power reels?"

"Oh, yes. The Ci4 4000SFA, the newest model incorporating advanced Ci4 technology-"

"Let me see."

Akira stood up from the table and strode over to the box beside Misaki, observing the reels with intense interest. Meanwhile, Tapioca, his trusty duck sidekick (boss), had been dispensed from the human's arms and onto the floor, completely forgotten.

It wasn't right.

They were _supposed_ to be focusing on their mission, _supposed_ to be tracking the alien and company _right now_ - but instead they were here, mucking around with such frivolous things as fishing rods and shiny new reels. Where Akira's fascination with such things originated was a mystery, and Tapioca couldn't care less. Whatever the reason, they were wasting valuable time, and he would stand for none of it.

Tapioca honked at his human, but Akira was too immersed in shiny-new-reel fascination to take the slightest notice. It was just plain rude.

Tapioca honked again, and again Akira divided none of his attention (what a stupid human) - but he did receive an unexpected answer from the opposite side of the store. It was a hiss.

He turned, and behind him was a massive, fat, orange cat, giving him quite the scowl.

Tapioca did not like the look he was receiving, so he hacked out a harsh quack at the cat to chase it off. It didn't budge, but started again to hiss, its hair standing on end and its back arched in a curve. What a stupid, cocky cat; it thought it could frighten Tapioca off.

Well, two can play at this game.

Tapioca fluffed out his feathers and opened his wings, staging himself for a showdown. The cat may have been a monstrosity in girth, but it looked so fat and slow, Tapioca was certain he could take it on in a fight if the match got ugly. Besides, he had wings, and his trusty human who would surely help him-

"These are the ones with the tri-drag system, right?"

"That's right! This series of reels are the only ones in the world to have three drag systems on a single reel -"

Forget Akira.

Tapioca gave one final honk, warning the cat of the evil it was about to unleash upon itself. The cat arched even higher and Tapioca spread his wings wide, and in the blink of an eye, they pounced.

The next few seconds were spent in a flurry of fur and feathers, the clash of claw and beak as the cat snagged off a couple of Tapioca's feathers and the duck claimed revenge with a sharp peck in the nose. The cat's yowl of agony pierced through the air; its eyes glittered in rage, and it rounded on Tapioca so fast that the bird was nearly knocked off its feet. Tapioca fluttered his wings in a frenzy, trying to deter the cat from laying its final blow - he could feel the hot, fishy breath of his foe on his neck. He kept his eyes on the sway of the cat's tail, watching and waiting, maneuvering just enough to come within reach of the long stretch of orange fur. It swayed towards him, just inches away from his beak, now centimeters, and then -

"Boss!"

"Tapioca!"

Suddenly arms were thrown around him, and he was whisked out of the heat of battle - but not before he heard the satisfying yowl of his adversary as he landed his final blow.

Akira held Tapioca tight against him, Tapioca trashing and fighting every step of the way, and struggled to remove the furry tail from the duck's beak. Beside him, Misaki held the cat, soothingly petting its head until it calmed enough to stop struggling. Eventually, the tail was released.

"Ah, they must not like each other..."

Akira sighed and made a slight noise in agreement. He sent a contemptuous glare down to Tapioca - thanks to this dumb duck, his front was covered in feathers and he'd been battered with wings all over.

"Are you okay?"

"Ah," Akira looked up with a surprised smile. "Yes, I'm-"

Misaki bent down to Tapioca's level. "Poor thing, that big cat must have been scary."

Akira's smile dropped. _Of course _she was talking to the duck.

"He'll be fine," he said curtly. "I think we'll take our leave now."

"Oh, okay. Bye bye, Tapioca!" She waved to Tapioca, and then turned around to scold her cat.

Tapioca could hear Akira grumble as they turned to leave the store, and the grip of his hands got progressively tighter, but Tapioca didn't pay him any mind at all. He was too busy staring down that orange cat, snuggling up in the arms of the shopkeeper girl, playing innocent, until the girl walked away and a pair of slit eyes glared right back at him.

Akira was no longer the only one getting sidetracked.

* * *

**A/N:** First Tsuritama fic FTW! *ahem* Yeah, anyways... This is gonna be a bunch of shorts centered around little Tapioca, because he's awesome and I love him. I haven't been doing fanfiction for a whiiiile and I've never been good at keeping up with multi-chapter fics, but since this one is just a bunch of one-shots, basically, with no real plot, I think I can do it. And I've been in a real Tsuritama loving mood since it started airing, so I'll probably have a lot of inspiration.

Thank you for checking out my story and I hope to see a few who stick with it! :)


	2. Fishing

Blue waves crashed all around them as the boat sped farther into the ocean. The shore soon become nothing but a blurry line on the distant horizon, accented by the green of trees and a few white specks representing buildings or other ships.

Today, they were going fishing.

Tapioca noted the look of happiness and, dare he think it, _excitement_ on Akira's face, reveling in the ocean breeze blowing through his hair as he held fast on to his fishing pole. He always had that dumb expression when they went out on Captain's boat, and most times was in such reverie that he forgot to watch the alien, who had apparently gotten a job on the boat along with its friends. _That_ was the whole reason they were out here, not for his own pleasure at fishing - but Akira always seemed to forget that.

Tapioca ruffled out his feathers a bit as the boat slowed to a halt, watching the alien's red-headed comrade head to the front and cast his line. That boy had gotten a lot more confident on deck as of late, and had finally grown some sea legs to stand up instead of crouching down low and clasping on to any nearby object (or person) for dear life. Now was the only time that Akira was really watching him - when he was waiting for the signal to cast out his own line and forget about their mission completely. Tapioca recollected the day when Akira was idiotically chanting "fishing, fishing, fishing" while jerking his line around in the water. It was a painful memory.

The duck waddled closer up to the bow, if only to distance himself from his lackluster human. He was close enough to see the redhead's face light up as the tip of his pole dipped down towards the water.

"Cast away!"

The crowd of customers behind him (Akira included) cast their lines out into the ocean with glee. The alien and his dark-haired friend with the glasses took up their nets, glasses heading towards the redhead while the alien bounced in place, waiting for someone to call for a net.

The redhead was struggling with the fish. "I-I think this one's really big, Natsuki!"

"Wait for it to stop pulling, Yuki," Natsuki replied, poising the net just over the edge in wait.

Yuki waited a few seconds, then as the line slackened, he reeled in with all his might. Suddenly it jumped up, extremely close to the boat, and Natsuki's eyes went wide.

"It's huge - Whoa!"

Tapioca only got the chance to glimpse the shining scales of an abnormally large mahi-mahi before it was upon him.

There were shouts from customers, surprised that a fish had actually jumped into the boat, then alarmed at the scene beginning to unfold before them. Tapioca nearly escaped being knocked unconscious by the fish, by squawking and jumping to the side just in time, but it kept flopping about on the deck right in his direction. He had to continually jump away, but just like a lost little puppy, the fish would follow him again and nearly knock him over with its squirming body. Once, it even managed to hit him in the beak with the webby end of its tail.

Tapioca squawked and squawked in rising panic. Really, just _what the hell_ was going on here? Weren't fish supposed to be afraid of ducks?

"Tapioca!" Akira shouted uselessly, doing nothing more than reaching towards him from his position at the other side of the boat. Who was that helping, twit?

"Get it, Natsuki!" Captain Ayumi called from the wheel, climbing out of the hub and onto the deck. The customers gathered against the sides and back towards the stern, trying to escape the fish, and having much more success at it than poor Tapioca.

"Fishy, fishy!" the alien shouted joyously, laughing. Tapioca knew that thing was evil.

Tapioca had been cornered against the side of the boat, beside a customer who still had his line in the water. He jumped up onto the side, startling said customer, who then jerked his rod back, trying to keep as far away from the chaos as possible. The rod smacked Tapioca right across the face and he toppled, suspended in air momentarily by the furious flapping of his wings, right into the ocean below.

Now, being a duck, Tapioca rather enjoyed the water - but being forced into it head-first by some dumb human with a pole sucked all the fun out of it. Water got into his beak and he choked, his head spinning from the hit, but he managed to gather his bearings and swim to the surface. He broke out of the water to find a throng of curious faces staring down at him.

What were they looking at? Haven't they ever seen a duck almost drown before?

Natsuki had the fish in the net, and it had stopped struggling considerably, so Tapioca thought it was safe to return to the boat. He flapped up and was immediately met with Akira's surprisingly relieved face. He waddled over to his human, just to humor him.

"Hey, Indian!" Captain Ayumi called, walking up to Akira with a slight anger and annoyance in his voice. "Shouldn't you keep better watch of your pet?"

_Pet?_

"Yes," Akira said, picking Tapioca up off the deck. "I am sorry."

Tapioca was not a pet. He refused to succumb to such a title.

Ayumi retained the angered boss-look a bit longer, then sighed. "Whatever. As long as the thing's okay."

As soon as the Captain walked away, Akira shot Tapioca that glare. The one that said, _'Why must you cause me so much trouble?'_

If Tapioca had a human-like tongue, he would have stuck it out at Akira.

He hated fishing.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks to ENOSHIMA BOWL and L for reviewing, even though I just published the first chapter two days ago, haha. Such quick additions will probably rarely, if ever, happen in the future; but for now, I'm having fun writing this. Poor Tapioca's gotten kinda beaten around so far, but I'll try not to do that next chapter... Maybe.

Thank you for reading!


	3. Godzilla

Tapioca walked the sunny sidewalks of the Enoshima shore, watching the small dot of a fishing boat bob out in the clear blue waters. The warmth felt lovely on his feathers, and he fluffed a bit, enjoying his time alone outside. Akira would be out there for quite a while, and since Tapioca certainly did not want to bear any more witness to his fishing shenanigans (which were _supposed_ to be observations), he had the day all to himself.

Yes, Tapioca did _not_ have to remain tethered to Akira's side. He could do whatever he wanted. He was a free bird.

The sidewalk was beginning to get uncomfortably hot under his webbed feet, so he turned into town to walk along cooler, shaded roads. The breeze was cool and the day was young; he looked around for something interesting to get into. (Considering Akira spent all his time goofing off, Tapioca thought he deserved his own day off once and a while.)

A bit farther down the road, and he came across a group of kids playing in the grass.

"Look! Ducky!" one called out, pointing towards Tapioca for the rest of the bunch to see.

"Hehe! Ducky, ducky!"

"Come here, ducky!"

Tapioca knew trouble when he saw it, and really, what could be more troubling than little children pilling on his wings and tearing his feathers out? He tried to turn tail and escape, but he had gotten too close to the danger zone, and the children were upon him in a fraction of a second.

"Ducky!" one said as he reached to pick Tapioca up. Tapioca squawked as he felt surprisingly strong little arms tighten around him, nearly crushing his delicate body.

"Play with us, ducky!" a little girl said, patting his head roughly as the boy held him. It was terribly unpleasant, but Tapioca was not a dumb duck; he wasn't about to lash out at the little tykes, especially with who was presumably one of their mothers glancing out of the doorway of the house they were playing in front of every now and then. He did not fancy the idea of ending up as someone's barbeque.

The children carried him over to the lawn and sat down, Tapioca seated on the little boy's lap. He was still being held much too tight, but it was better than having his feet dangling in mid-air and having the fear of being dropped at any second by such an un-professional hold. Really, even Akira carried him better than that.

There were five children in total, three boys and two girls. The first thing they did was argue about what to play with their new ducky friend.

"We should play dress-up!" one of the girls said, meeting a nod of agreement from the other girl. "I can go get my dolly clothes from my house."

Tapioca blanched at the thought of being dressed up in "dolly clothes".

"No way!" the boys chorused. Tapioca would have sighed in relief, if he could sigh.

"We should play Godzilla!" the boy holding Tapioca said, pointing to the building blocks scatted across the lawn. Tapioca guessed he was the leader of the gang. "Let's build Tokyo first!"

"Yeah!" the other boys said. They grabbed for the blocks and began construction, while the girls pouted in dissatisfaction.

"Hey, Mei, could you get one of your dollies?" the leader-boy asked the girl who had suggested dress-up. Mei looked up at him, a bit surprised and confused. "She can be the damsel in distress."

Mei smiled, happy to be able to play with her dolls. "Okay, Kousuke!"

While Mei sped off into the house next door, Kousuke lifted Tapioca off his lap and turned to the other girl. "Here, Mika, I'm going to help Sakaki and Kaito build Tokyo, so you can hold Ducky."

Apparently, Tapioca's new name was officially "Ducky".

The transition between Kousuke and Mika's arms was anything but gentle, and Tapioca couldn't help but squirm and quack a bit, which seemed to frighten the little girl. As soon as she got to hold him, however, he calmed down considerably. Her arms were soft and gentle around him, and she had a much better way of holding him than the boy had. After a while of watching the boys build a colorful block-city - supposedly Tokyo - she even began to stroke his head and back in a calm, soothing way.

Tapioca decided that he liked this girl.

Just as the boys were finishing their construction, Mei came back with a yellow-haired plastic human in her hands.

"I got my dolly, Kousuke!" she said, running up to the boys.

"Great!" Kousuke said. "Put her up here."

Mei placed her precious doll carefully on top of the tallest block tower, so that she leaned against the top block and stood on the edge of the second. Kousuke then called for Mika to come over, so she stood, careful to support Tapioca against her, and took slow, steady steps towards the gang.

Forget "like", Tapioca _loved_ this girl. She held him so steadily, so perfectly, that Tapioca was near convinced she was a trained duck-handler. He wondered if he could leave Akira and stay with little Mika forever.

At Kousuke's instruction, Mika set Tapioca down with the utmost care in the middle of color-block Tokyo. The replica was a few centimeters shorter than he was- four wingspans long and two wide. Tapioca glanced around at its construction for approximately half a second before turning to stare at the waiting children.

What, did they expect him to do something?

"He's not destroying things, Kousuke," one of the boys said. Well, _of course _he wasn't destroying things - Tapioca was civilized. What kind of duck did they take him for?

"I got it," Kousuke said. He kneeled down beside mini-Tokyo, giving Tapioca a hard stare. Then he picked up a block off the top of one of the towers and, with a roar, threw it down to land right beside Tapioca.

Tapioca just stared at him, quizzically, wondering what on Earth the boy was doing.

"It didn't work," the boy beside Kousuke said with a flat expression.

Kousuke scrunched up his nose in annoyance. "Well, then, what do _you_ think we should do, Sakaki?"

Sakaki kneeled down beside him. "Watch," he said, holding up a finger to silence any more of his friend's questions. He then reached out his hand towards Tapioca.

Tapioca thought, for a second, that maybe he should move and not let the boy touch him. In another second, he would wish that he had done just that.

Suddenly he felt a sharp pain to his rear, and in overwhelming pain, he panicked. Sakaki stood with a smirk on his face and a long, white feather in his hand.

Tapioca was in a fury. He squawked and danced all around, trying to target whoever dared to pluck a feather from his beautiful tail, but all those colored blocks and towers were getting in his way, so he knocked them all out of his way with a sweep of his wings. That move ended up backfiring on him when the blocks tumbled down on top of him, knocking him to the ground. Luckily they were very light, so he was uninjured, but in his frenzy the colorful attack just served to further his panic, and he struggled to remove himself from underneath the rubble of Toyko city.

"Sakaki!" Mika yelled, the first time she had spoken since Tapioca arrived. "You hurt him!"

"Oh, he's fine," Sakaki waved her off, "it's just one feather."

"How would you like it if I pulled the hair out of your head, stupid?" Kousuke said. He glared at Sakaki with his fists balled tight at his sides; Sakaki glared right back, willing to accept a fight if it happened.

"Um, guys," the other boy, Kaito, spoke, pointing towards Tapioca and the destruction of Tokyo. His words were followed by Mei's scream.

"My dolly!"

The kids all turned back towards the destruction of Tokyo to see Tapioca chomping down on the damsel in distress. The doll had flown down on him, along with the block tower, and landed right in his face, and unlike the blocks, it was not soft and light. Affronted by this new attack, Tapioca rounded on the doll and gave it no mercy. Currently he was pecking out its perfectly combed blonde hair, spitting out tuffs of yellow over blocks of red, blue, and green.

"Don't, Mei!" Kousuke tried to grab her, but Mei ran right into the horde of blocks, grasped onto her dolly's arm, and pulled. Tapioca snagged the dolls other arm and pulled just as hard; they were engaged in a momentary tug-of-war, with the doll as the rope, until Mika linked her arms around Mei's waist and pulled. The doll popped out of Tapioca's beak and the girls were sent flying backwards onto the grass.

"Are you okay?" Kousuke asked the girls, rushing to their side. Mika nodded, but Mei let out an ear-piercing cry to the heavens.

"My dolly! Her hair!"

The scream was loud and sharp enough to break Tapioca out of his rage, and he looked around him, a bit mystified. Animal rage was a curious thing - once it kicked in, he really didn't know what he was doing, and often the memory of it was hazy. He supposed such things were called "instincts".

As soon as the haze faded, though, the first thing he saw was the woman from the doorway running from the house in his direction.

Then he heard crying.

He took off into the air before the woman even got a good look of him.

* * *

"Oh, there you are."

Tapioca waddled into the back door of the little ice cream shop - the secret operating center of the organization - with his head down and feet dragging. He had had a long day, and he was exhausted. The other men of the organization gave him curious glances as he made his way towards Akira.

"I almost had to go out looking for you," Akira grumbled as he picked up the duck. "Do you know how much trouble I would be in if you got lost?"

Tapioca didn't reply to his human's rude tone; he was much too tired, and all he wanted to do was curl up in somebody's lap and go to sleep. As he did so, however, he couldn't help but think that Akira's hold on him was still not nearly as gentle and lovely as that little girl's had been.

From now on, he would steer clear of children playing Godzilla games.

* * *

**A/N:** So, maybe I should change the title of this fic to "The MISadventures of Tapioca". Sigh. That poor little duck.

Thanks to Silvershadow471 for reviewing, and thank YOU for reading! 'Til next time!


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